it has doubtless all changed since. I have been at a town of 2000
inhabitants, not one of whom took in a newspaper: the whole population,
therefore, was in as profound ignorance of what was transpiring in the
rest of the world as if they had been in Novaia Zemlia. I have stayed
with a mayor who did not know that England was an island; I have been the
guest of a citizen who had never heard of Scotland, and to whom,
therefore, my nationality was an enigma: but I never met any one--I mean
of this same class--who had not heard of Palmerston. He was a mysterious
personage, execrated by the "blacks" and adored by the "reds." And I
shone with a reflected lustre as the citizen of a country of which he was
the Prime Minister. As a consequence, we had political discussions,
which were protracted far into the night, for the principal meal of the
twenty-four hours was a 10 o'clock P.M. supper, at which, after the
inevitable macaroni, were many unwholesome dishes, such as salads made of
thistles, cows' udders, and other delicacies, which deprived one of all
desire for sleep. Notwithstanding which, we rose early, my hostess and
the ladies of the establishment appearing in the early part of the day in
the most extreme deshabille. Indeed, on one occasion when I was first
introduced into the family of a respectable citizen, and shown into my
bedroom, I mistook one of two females who were making the bed for the
servant, and was surprised to see her hand a little douceur I gave her as
an earnest of attention on her part, to the other with a smile. She soon
afterwards went to bed: we all did, from 11 A.M. till about 3 P.M., at
which hour I was horrified to meet her arrayed in silks and satins, and
to find that she was the wife of my host. She kindly took me a drive
with her in a carriage and pair, and with a coachman in livery.

It was by this simple means, and by thus imposing myself upon the
hospitality of these unsophisticated people, that I worked my way by slow
degrees, chiefly on foot, into the part of the country I desired to